The player is basically the one character that can be controlled
by the person playing the game. The player differs from other characters
in several important ways; for example, he can have more than one life,
he can maintain an inventory of up to fifteen weapons, and his current
state is displayed in the game's status bar.

The player begins each level at an invisible point called a player start
location, and progresses until he is killed or until the level is completed.
If the player dies but has one or more lives remaining, he reappears at
the nearest respawn location.

The concepts of player types and player sets are explained
below. The linked headings connect to pages summarizing the properties of
player types and player sets. As you will see, player types and player sets
share many similarities with the previously described character types and
character sets.

When the player appears in a level, his physical attributes (for example
how fast he can run and how high he can jump), are determined by the associated
player type. The player type may change as the game progresses, allowing
the player to improve his abilities (for example, he could change to a player
type that might allow for faster movement and higher jumping.)

Player Sets contain animation sequences and sound effects used by player
types. It is possible for different player types to refer to different player
sets, such that the player's appearance changes when his player type changes.

Player types and player sets parallel character types and character sets
by limiting potentially tedious aspects of the design process; they make
it possible for the player to appear in several contexts without requiring
that his core attributes be redesigned each time he changes locations.